United States Department of Agriculture-Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
Plant Protection and Quarantine-Center for Plant Health Science and Technology

NOXIOUS WEED INSPECTION SYSTEM GLOSSARY

Abaca fibers: A fiber obtained from leafstalks of the banana plant (Musa textilis); native to the Philippines; also called Manila hemp.

Achene: A small, dry indehiscent fruit with one seed.

Agave fibers: A fiber obtained from the spiny leaves of the century plant (Agave sp.).

Annual: Of one season's duration.

Annular: Ringlike in form; as the fruit of certain species of Prosopis.

Antrorsely scabrous: With coarse hairs slanting upward.

Appressed: Pressed closely against.

Areole: Swollen area at the nodes of cacti.

Avenue of entry for Federal Noxious Weeds: An article being imported from abroad that may harbor or be contaminated with Federal Noxious Weeds.

Awn: A bristle or hairlike appendage.

Barbellate: With short, stiff, hooked hairs.

Bayer Code: (pronounced Buyer); An internationally accepted 5 letter code for crop and weed species; originated by the Bayer Chemical Company of West Germany; (example: IMPCY - Imperata cylindrica).

Berry: A pulpy, indehiscent fruit with several carpels, each with one or more seeds.

Binate: Splitting into two parts from a common point.

Bipinnate: A twice compound leaf,.

Bract: A reduced leaf; usually subtending a flower or flower cluster.

Bulb: Modified, shortened stem enclosed with fleshy leaves; usually underground; as an onion.

Callus: A hard thickening around or on a structure.

Calyx: Outer whorl of sterile floral parts; the sepals.

Capillary bristles: Slender, hairlike bristles.

Capsule: A dry, dehiscent fruit with more than one carpel (section).

Carpel: One of the units of a compound pistil; a simple pistil has one carpel.

Caryopsis: A grain as in the grasses; the fruit of a grass.

Chasmogamous: A normal open flower, not cleistogamous.

Cladode: Fleshy stem section of a cactus plant.

Cleistogamous: A closed self-pollinating flower, not chasmogamous.

Compressed: Flattened.

Cordate: Heart-shaped in outline with the pointed end at the apex.

Corm: Shortened underground stem with scaly leaves; as in the crocus plant.

Corolla: Inner, usually colored, whorl of sterile floral parts; the petals.

Corymb (corymbose): a short, broad inflorescence, with the outer flowers opening first.

Culm: Flowering stem.

Cyme: A broad-topped inflorescence (flower cluster) in which the central and oldest flower is terminal on the main axis; the next flower is terminal on an axis arising from the axil of bracts subtending the first flower, and so on.

Decumbent: Running horizontally with the tips ascending.

Decurrent: Said of leaf bases that extend below the point of attachment to the stem.

Dehiscent: Opening at maturity; as a dehiscent fruit.

Deltate: Being like an equilateral triangle in outline.

Dioecious: With male and female flowers on separate plants.

Drupe: A fleshy, indehiscent, 1-seeded fruit as in a cherry- the seed is enclosed by a stony endocarp.

Drupelet: A small drupe; blackberry fruits are aggregates of numerous drupelets on a receptacle.

Disarticulation: The breaking away of a section or part of something, as in the falling away of the spikelets of a grass from the rachis.

Entire: a smooth margin, without teeth.

Epigynous: Perianth and stamens adnate to the surface of the ovary and appearing to grow from the top of it.

Falcate: Sickle-shaped.

Fascicle: A tight cluster of roots, stems, leaves or flowers.

Floret: A single flower of a grass or composite.

Flowering head: A cluster of flowers borne on a single receptacle; as a sunflower.

Fruit: A ripened ovary.

FNW: Federal Noxious Weed.

FNWs: Federal Noxious Weeds.

Fodder: Vegetable materials fed to domestic animals, such as hay and corn.

Forb: Herbaceous plants other than the grasses.

Geniculate: Abruptly bent; zigzag.

Ginger: A thickened rhizome (underground stem) that is extremely pungent and aromatic; from a tropical, perennial herb Zingiber that is widely cultivated as a spice and sometimes for medicinal use; usually prepared by drying and grinding to a fine powder.

Glandular: Having secretory glands or hairs.

Glumes: The pair of bracts at the base of a grass spikelet.

Hastate: Shaped like an arrow head, with the basal lobes pointing outward at wide angles.

Haustorium: A specialized interface organelle between a parasite and a host.

Hemp: A tall, widely cultivated herb from Asia (Cannabis sativa) with tough bast fibers that is used for making cloth, floor coverings and cordage.

Hirsute: Pubescent with coarse or stiff hairs.

Hydrosoil: The soil surface underneath a body of water.

Identification collection: Federal Noxious Weed seed/propagule collection.

Imbricate: Overlapping, as in the shingles of a house.

Indehiscent: Not opening at maturity; as an indehiscent fruit.

Inflorescence: A floral arrangement on a branch system such as a spike, raceme, panicle, corymb, cyme or umbel.

Interception: A pest (weed, insect, plant or animal disease, etc.) found contaminating/infesting an article being imported from another country.

Intermodal container: A shipping container, generally 20' to 40' in length, used in international commerce. ICs are discharged directly from container ships onto a truck-pulled chassis for overland movement to the destination.

Involucre: A whorl of bracts subtending a flower cluster as in the sunflower.

Irregular flower: A flower with petals of different sizes.

Jute: Glossy fibers of either of two East Indian plants (Corchorus olitorius or C. capsularis of the linden family; used chiefly for the manufacture of burlap and twine.

Lanceolate: Lance-shaped; widest at the base, tapering towards the apex.

Leaf blade: The flat, expanded, portion of a leaf.

Leaf petiole: Leaf stalk.

Leaflet: An ultimate division of a compound leaf.

Legume: A plant in the legume family; the fruit of a legume; a pod.

Lemma: The lower (outer) of two bracts enclosing a grass flower.

Lesser Antilles: A group of islands in the eastern West Indies (southeast of the Virgin Islands).

Ligule: A collar-like appendage at the top of the sheath of a grass leaf.

Linear: Long and narrow.

Mericarp: One of two seedlike carpels (sections) of a schizocarp [the fruit of plants in the carrot family (Apiaceae)].

Micronesia: Island group of the west Pacific, north of the Equator, east of the Philippines.

Monoecious: With male and tamale flowers on the same plant.

Moniliform: Like a string of beads; a term that describes the fruit of certain species of Prosopis.

Multi-seriate: In several series.

Oblique: With unequal sides.

Oblong: Elongated with parallel margins.

Ochrea: Sheathing stipules as in the Polygonaceae.

Oilseed: Any of various seeds grown largely for oil, such as castor bean, sesame, cottonseed, linseed and rapeseed.

Ovate: Having an outline that is egg-shaped with one end being larger than the other.

Ovoid: Solid and ovate (eggshaped) in outline.

Palea: The inner (upper) of two bracts enclosing a grass floret.

Panicle: A loose compound inflorescence with pediceled flowers

Pedicel: Stalk of an individual flower in an inflorescence.

Peduncle: Stalk of a flower cluster (inflorescence) or a single flower.

Perennial: Of more than one season's duration.

Perfect: Said of a flower with both stamens and pistils.

Pericarp: The fruit wall; the ripened walls of an ovary.

Pilose: With long, soft, straight hairs.

Pinna: Primary division of a pinnately compound leaf.

Pip: Small corm-like rootstock; as in taro (Colocasia esculenta).

Pistil: The seed-bearing portion of a flower, composed of the ovary, stigma and style.

Plaiting: (pronounced platting); The weaving of plant materials into baskets, etc.

Pod: The fruit of a legume; a dry, several-seeded, elongated fruit from 1 carpel; it may open along both sides (sutures); a legume.

Polynesia: A triangular island group of the central and south Pacific; bounded by Hawaii, New Zealand and Easter Island.

Product - Article = Commodity: (In reference to the Noxious Weed Inspection System).

Propagule: Any part of a plant that will produce another plant; variously seeds, stems, roots, rhizomes, stolons, bulbs, turions, corms, pips, etc.

Puberulent: Minutely pubescent.

Pubescent: Covered with hairs.

Raceme: A simple inflorescence with pedicelled flowers.

Rachilla: A small rachis; the axis (stem) of a grass spikelet.

Rachis: The axis of an inflorescence or compound leaf.

Ramie: A tall perennial herb of eastern Asia (Boehmeria nivea); with thick, dark green leaves that are white and woolly on the undersurface; commercially cultivated in China, Japan, and the Philippines for its fibers; ramie fibers can be spun or woven into fabrics similar to cotton or linen.

Recumbent: Leaning, reclining.

Retuse: Shallowly notched.

Rhizome: Underground plant stem structure; produces aerial shoots and roots at each node; as in bamboo.

Rosette: A crowded cluster of leaves.

Sagittate: Arrow-like in outline.

Scale: Small, dry, appressed leaves or bracts.

Scape: A naked flowering stem.

Schizocarp: A fruit that splits into two or more 1-seeded sections called mericarps; as in the carrot family.

Sessile: Without a stalk.

Setulose: With minute bristles.

Significant interception: The interception of a prohibited pest during border clearance activities that results in quarantine actions to eliminate the pest or prevent its entry into the United States.

Sp.: Single unidentified species in a genus (example: Pinus sp.).

Spp.: More than one species in a genus (example: Pinus spp.).

Spathe: A large bract enclosing an inflorescence.

Spike: An elongated stem or axis of sessile flowers or spikelets.

Spikelets: A secondary or small spike, as in the grasses; with each flower subtended by a scale or bract.

Spine: Sharp pointed woody structure; modified leaf or stipule.

Stamen: The male organ of a flower that produces pollen.

Stamens exserted: Stamens that emerge from (and are longer than) the corolla tube.

Stamens included: Stamens that are shorter than (not emerging from the corolla tube.

Stellate: Star-like with radiating branches.

Stipitate: Stalked.

Stipule: One of a pair of foliar appendages at the base of a petiole.

Stolon: Horizontal stems that grow over the surface of the ground, developing new plantlets at the tips; as in strawberries (Fragaria).

Subdigitately arranged: more or less diverging from a common point.

Subrotund: Somewhat spherical in shape.

Succulent: Fleshy, like the stems of aloe or cacti.

Tepal: Undifferentiated perianth parts.

Thorn: A stem modified into a sharp pointed structure.

Torus: The elongated receptacle of a flower.

Trichomes: Hairlike outgrowths of the epidermis

Tuber: Swollen underground stem; a storage organ; such as a potato.

Tubercles: Small nodule or tuber-like structure.

Tufted: In a clump.

Turion: A vegetative bud, as in Hydrilla.

Uninodal: One or one pair of appendages (such as spines) at a node.

Valve: The sections into which a fruit capsule splits.

Van pak: The crate in which household goods are shipped to and from overseas.

Vine: A type of plant that trails or creeps along the ground, often climbing on other things by means of tendrils.

Vitta: An oil tube; as in the fruits of plants in the carrot family.

Weed habitat: Type of habitat in the foreign country in which the weed usually grows; e.g., croplands (cultivation), rangelands, pastures, forests, or aquatic areas (rice paddies, marshes, ponds, etc.).

Wool, greasy (raw): Wool sheared from a sheep and shipped without being cleaned or processed.